Linchpin

Are You Indispensible?

This life-changing manifesto shows how you have the potential to make a huge difference wherever you are.

Few authors have had the kind of lasting impact and global reach that Seth Godin has had. In a series of now-classic books that have been translated into 36 languages and reached millions of readers around the world, he has taught generations of readers how to make remarkable products and spread powerful ideas. In Linchpin , he turns his attention to the individual, and explains how anyone can make a significant impact within their organization.

There used to be two teams in every workplace: management and labor. Now there's a third team, the linchpins. These people figure out what to do when there's no rule book. They delight and challenge their customers and peers. They love their work, pour their best selves into it, and turn each day into a kind of art.

Have you ever found a shortcut that others missed? Seen a new way to resolve a conflict? Made a connection with someone others couldn't reach? Even once? Then you have what it takes to become indispensable, by overcoming the resistance that holds people back. Linchpin will show you how to join the likes of...

· Keith Johnson, who scours flea markets across the country to fill Anthropologie stores with unique pieces. · Jason Zimdars, a graphic designer who got his dream job at 37signals without a résumé. · David, who works at Dean and Deluca coffee shop in New York. He sees every customer interaction as a chance to give a gift and is cherished in return.

As Godin writes, "Every day I meet people who have so much to give but have been bullied enough or frightened enough to hold it back. It's time to stop complying with the system and draw your own map. You have brilliance in you, your contribution is essential, and the art you create is precious. Only you can do it, and you must."

Chosen by Claire Berlinski as Book of the Year: "A reviewer on Amazon characterized Seth Godin's Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? (Portfolio) thus: “Every once in a while I run across a book that is so important, so compelling, so unique with respect to not only content but also writing style that I can't put it down until I finish it. This is not one of those books.” Quite. So why I have I chosen it as book of the year? Because it is the last book the bestselling, optimistic, all-American marketing guru Seth Godin will be selling with a traditional publisher.

"Publishing industry: That's an ex-canary. My nomination of this book is symbolic. I am really nominating what Godin is saying generally: Books in print form are antiques. No one wants to buy them any more; they cost too much; the way they are marketed and distributed is insanity. The traditional book publishing industry is dead. It is not coming back. I'd be surprised if any of the other books on this list have sold more than a few thousand copies, however terrific they are. Godin, however, has sold millions of books, and while none will be remembered as the work of an exquisite prose stylist, they will be remembered for selling like crazy and thereby proving his point:

"There has been an epic change in the nature of reading, publishing, and the exchange of ideas. Everyone in the traditional publishing industry has lost his/her job or will lose it soon, and they deserve to; they have failed entirely to adapt to a technological revolution as significant as the invention of the printing press. “I honestly can't think of a single traditional book publisher who has led the development of a successful marketplace/marketing innovation in the last decade,” Godin writes. More than anyone else, he has confronted the change in the way people read and exchange information forthrightly. He is doing something more interesting and useful than lament it. He will surely not be the first bestselling author to dump the publishing industry entirely, and more power to him."